The Better Business Bureau is out with the top scams for 2015.
Most of them have different names but the same MO.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have received a call in which con artists pose as IRS agents and demand immediate payment for an alleged lawsuit filed against the recipient of the call.
“If I didn’t clear it up that they were going to prosecute me,” said a victim of the scam who only gave her first name, Lois.
Lois paid the scammers $4,500 in prepaid debit cards.
“I panicked,” she said.
The BBB said tax cons were by far the top scam of 2015.
In other popular scams criminals pose as debt collectors or tech support. Other impostors claim you’ve won a sweepstakes or been awarded a grant.
“The top scams all involve impostors, either someone you know or trust or someone that you’re afraid of,” BBB president and CEO council Mary Power.
The scams have something else in common: The criminal wants money up front.
Father Michael Ortiz thought he was a millionaire when he received a phony sweepstakes letter. All he had to do was pay a $40,000 tax to receive his prize.
“Hook line and sinker I fell,” he said.
And the scam artists want an untraceable form of payment.
“One of the red flags of any scam is if someone is requesting that you pay by prepaid debit card, wire transfer or gift card you should be wary,” Power said.
And experts said if someone is demanding money or if the offer sounds too good to be true, it’s likely a scam.
To learn about scams in your area, you can check out the Better Business Bureau’s scam tracker here.
